Space News thread

[Takeovers]

Pictures of the failed experimental vehicle. For the NASA equivalent google HIAD.

Attachment 50409

[NamPikToot]

mining on the moon, what possibly could go wrong?

Looks like we could be back to the good old days of the C16/17th and the rush to colonise. This time though its going to be US, China and Russia, i can't see any control being effective in terms of governance - look at how ineffectual the UN are. Its just going to be one big land grab and flag planting decade. Be interesting though.

[Takeovers]

This time though its going to be US, China and Russia

Russia is a third world country with an oversized ego and military. Their space assets are falling apart. Though they have stabilized somewhat recently.

[NamPikToot]

Yep, India may yet get a look in too - they are certainly ambitious.

[Takeovers]

The chinese crew capsule has successfully returned to Earth from as high as 5000km at least. Higher than the high speed return test of NASA Orion.

Whatever I think about Chinese politics and leadership. They do make progress in space.

微博






Some seeds were on board. Since the flight went through the Van Allen belt a number of times they were exposed to quite a lot of radiation. Unlike astronauts who pass through the belt once and fast with much lower radiation exposure.

[Dragonfly]

Russia is a third world country with an oversized ego and military. Their space assets are falling apart. Though they have stabilized somewhat recently.

and yet they are the only ones left to send astronauts to the ISS, and the Soyuz is still running after 50+ years of operations, simple tech but it works and it's reliable

not sure the new toys from SpaceX will be that resilient,

[Takeovers]

simple tech but it works and it's reliable

Some drunken idiot drilled a hole into the pressure vessel of a Soyuz and told nobody. They found out when it started leaking while docked with the ISS.

[Dragonfly]

Some drunken idiot drilled a hole into the pressure vessel of a Soyuz and told nobody. They found out when it started leaking while docked with the ISS.

and yet it landed safely

one heat tile in the space shuttle got off, and the whole ship collapsed

I would go with the Soviet

SpaceX spaceships and the American complexity will make it blow off for sure,

if you want to build something strong and solid, ask the Russians, they could make communism last 50 years, that's some kind of prowess right there

[Takeovers]

A video of the chinese spacecraft landing.

[Takeovers]

SpaceX spaceships and the American complexity will make it blow off for sure,

Fortunately the influence of NASA on the SpaceX design was not unlimited but you have a point.

The revolutionary Starship will be built largely without NASA influence, but with access to data from NASA. In many ways SpaceX follows the methods of Soviet Russia. Blow up many prototypes during development. Something that NASA did in the Apollo times with the moon landing as a result but have now lost to overcaution and overanalysis, analysis paralysis.

Looking forward to SpaceX blowing up more Starship prototypes in Boca Chica, Texas. Then flying to the Moon and to Mars at cost previously thought impossible.

[Takeovers]

Manned spaceflight is coming back to the US, with SpaceX Dragon 2 for NASA. The date is set for May 27, 20:33 UTC. Small slips are always possible, weather or some minor technical glitches. If the date slips it is by 3 days due to alignment with ISS passes.



NASA has tried their best to let Boeing go first. Without acknowledging this of course. But in the end it failed. Boeing bungled first their abor test then their unmanned test flight in December 2019, so badly that they are now probably 1 year away from manned flight.

The plan is now that SpaceX does their manned test flight named DM2, Demo Mission 2 on May 27. This was originally planned to be a short verification flight but with all the delays NASA is now desperately short of crew on the ISS so the plan changed. DM2 will stretch out a few months with the 2 Astronauts now trained to do essential work on the ISS. The exact time table depends on how fast SpaceX can build their first regular Crew Dragon. When that's ready, hopefully August or September this year DM2 will end its mission and return to Earth. After evaluation of all flight data, regujlar crew flight 1 with Dragon is scheduled to go up app. 1 month after DM2 landing. Crew 1 will have 4 crew as will all later flights if things go to plan.

DM2 Dragon being readied for flight.



The team that has built Dragon



The last critical test for declaring Dragon flight ready for crew. Dragon has unique 4 parachutes of a new design, to fit into a space that was initially meant to contain only 3 parachutes.
I almost posted the last Chinese capsule parachute landing but realized the mistake because there were only 3 parachutes.


A graphic of Falcon 9 rocket with DM2 Dragon on the pad with crew access arm. It is of course the historic pad LC-39A where Apollo 11 launched and most of the Spaceshuttles. Now rented and modernized by SpaceX.

[OhOh]

How much of the rocket is reusable?

[Takeovers]

How much of the rocket is reusable?

The first stage of the rocket. Also Dragon, though presently the contracts determine new Dragon every flight but it seems likely that NASA will accept reuse of Dragon soon. Spacex says Dragon is designed for 5 uses.

[Dragonfly]

I see they put back the old NASA logo of the 70s

[OhOh]

^^

Thanks.

[ScubaJohn]

I really like the photo with all the employees. I spent a lifetime in the industry, it was dominated by old guys like me with white shirts and or blue suits along with very few women. To see all those young people and the women in the workforce is really refreshing, it’s no damn wonder they have done so well as a company.

[Takeovers]

There is a story told by some high ranking Airforce Officer. He was in a meeting with a SpaceX team. He told one of the SpaceX team your team leader looks very young. He was told yes, he is young, he's an intern. They send an intern as teamleader to an Airforce meeting, because he happens to be best informed on the matter to discuss.

[ScubaJohn]

I remember attending meetings in my late 20’s, we were transitioning from analog to digital designs, mostly in breakthrough technology for phased array antennas. Very few of the senior designers and managers had any experience with this, I can’t tell you how many times I was referred to as “son”, but it didn’t take long to earn their respect.

The same is even more true today, my son is a very respected engineer in his early 30’s. He told me not long ago how many of the new engineers coming out of college we’re so incredibly smart, growing up fully immersed in the technology from such a young age, he can feel the pressure just trying to stay current in his field.

[Takeovers]

Some news on the Mars Insight mole. It stil is not successful in going deeper inside Mars. The latest photo.



Over the last weeks they seem to have stomped and scraped some surface material into the hole, hoping the mole gets more traction and will finally be able to dig deeper.

Quite a while back Tilman Spohn the scientific head of this experiment at DLR in Berlin has made a public presentation here in Berlin that I attended. Back then I asked him if they could scrape some material into the hole. He responded they have considered it but the surface is harder than it looks and the tools they have availabe are not well suited for that task. They might try this as a very last resort if everything else fails. Interesting to see that they now have done this after they exhausted every other method they could think of.

Next we will see if this brings any success, I keep my thumb pressed. It could give very important info of the inner structure of Mars, especially heat flow.

[Takeovers]

Time is running for the first manned flight of Crew Dragon to the ISS. It is scheduled for wednesday, May 27 but the weather may not permit it.

A tweet by Karen Nyberg

https://twitter.com/astrokarenn/stat...013857793?s=21

Arriving in Florida with a flyby of your dad’s spaceship on the launch pad... Priceless. #LaunchAmerica #CrewDragon

Karen Nyberg is the spouse of Doug Hurley, one of the two astronauts who will fly on Dragon. She is an astronaut too and took this photo of her son looking down on the launch pad and rocket that will launch his father.

[Chittychangchang]

The weather around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida may have other ideas, however.

A forecast released on Saturday by the US Space Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron predicted just a 40% chance of favourable conditions come launch time.

There is a strong possibility the Kennedy complex could see thick cloud, rain and even thunder.

If controllers are forced to scrub, everyone will come back on Saturday for a second try.

[Topper]

Do you know what time on Saturday?

[Takeovers]

Do you know what time on Saturday?

Launch time moves ~23 minutes earlier every day.

Weather is still a major concern. Not only in Florida but sea state all the way along the flight path from Florida to Ireland needs to be acceptable in case of in flight abort.

SpaceX and NASA both will have a life stream, mostly the same stream. Beginning 4 hours before launch and ending with docking at the ISS 19 hours after launch. Things will get intersting 45 minutes before launch. At that time they will have a go poll for all items including weather. If go at that time, they will begin fueling the Falcon rocket.






You can open the stream at any time. They have a count down timer to see when they will begin.

[OhOh]

Any chatter on the date of these launches"

"The third launch of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket successfully delivered its satellite payload to orbit Friday, validating engine design changes after a failure on the Long March 5’s second flight, and clearing the way for the launch of a Chinese Mars rover and lunar sample return mission in 2020. The 187-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket, the most powerful in China’s fleet, lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island in southern China at 1245 GMT (7:45 a.m. EST; 8:45 p.m. Beijing time) Friday.

A live video stream on Chinese state television showed the Long March 5 rocket firing into cloudy skies over the coastal launch base in China’s southernmost province.

Ten engines powered the Long March 5 into the sky with nearly 2.4 million pounds of thrust, carrying an experimental communications satellite named Shijian 20 into space.

The launch Friday marked the first flight of a Long March 5 rocket since the launcher’s second mission in July 2017 ended in failure, prompting a two-and-a-half-year grounding and redesign effort.

The successful return-to-flight of the Long March 5 rocket Friday paves the way for China to move forward with plans to launch a pair of ambitious robotic deep space missions using Long March 5 rockets in 2020"

Successful Long March 5 launch paves way for new Chinese space missions – Spaceflight Now

[harrybarracuda]

Apparently you might be able to see the spaceship over Blighty tonight...

Elon Musk'''s SpaceX Rocket Could Be Visible Over The UK Tonight - LADbible